My Review of Constantine: The House Of Mystery (2022)

 

Written by Ernie Altbacker

Directed by Matt Peters

Constantine (to the Spectre): "I accept my punishment. No more tricks."

It's been less than a year since John Constantine (Matt Ryan) got benched from Legends Of Tomorrow and only a few days since the show's cancellation was announced. Fortunately,in animation form, this particular version of the character has some life left in them as this particular showcase demonstrated.

Following the events of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, the Spectre (Lou Diamond Phillps) has decided that John can spend eternity in the House of Mystery for his interference in the universe. While it's later revealed that the Spectre's decision was meant to be merciful, Constantine's experience was anything but that.

Trapped in the magical house, Constantine had all of his friends and even a family with Zatanna and two kids named Della and Jack but rather repeatedly they turned into demons. Also repeatedly was the way that Constantine kept getting himself killed by his loved ones every time he learned more about his punishment.

The deaths are inventive and if this was a live action feature, they'd be wonderfully gory, silly and definitely meriting an R Rating. Saying that, I've never been a fan of the Constantine/Zatanna pairing and nor do I buy the 'love of my life' bit here. With the comics embracing Constantine with male characters in varying continuities, it's high time these animated movies did similar and no, a joke about King Shark doesn't cut it. Get with the times, DC animated.

Outside of that though, we did get an amusing bit where Constantine managed to set Nergal, Beezelbum and Ashok against one another in order to escape the House of Mystery. It's a classic Constantine bit, followed by a revealing confrontation with the Spectre and Constantine getting a grim reminder that the universe isn't quite done with him yet. 

- The showcase clocks in at 26 minutes with accompanying shorts for Blue Beetle/The Question  and The Losers and Kamandi.

- I really don't like the animation for Constantine in this one. Definitely a downgrade compared to his previous looks in the animated universe.

- Let's just say toilet water can be used for a spell when no other source of water is available.

- Chronology: A hell of a time for Constantine in his predicament. 

Constantine: The House Of Mystery has it's moments. Some top notch voice acting, inventive kills (loved the tree eating him) and proper consequences for previous actions. It's solid stuff and hopefully a reassuring sign that even if we've lost Matt Ryan in live action, we still have him in animated form as John Constantine for the foreseeable future.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)

Written by Mairghread Scott & Christina Sotta & Ernie Altbacker
Directed by Matt Peters & Christina Sotta

John Constantine: "You know what you have to do, mate. Clear the board. Start again."
The Flash: "Another Flashpoint. I promised Iris, before she... I can't."
John Constantine: "Yeah, I figured you'd say that."
The Flash: "Everything will change. Again."

With news of the DCEU going full Multiverse and a Flashpoint movie coming in 2022, let's take stock and remember that this particular animated universe started off with the same idea and with this animated movie are now ending with the same idea. An idea desperately needed as things really went to shit here for everyone involved.

Superman (Jerry O'Connell) decided to take the fight to Darkseid (Tony Todd) on Apokolips instead of wanting for the latter to attack Earth yet again. Despite both the Flash (Christopher Gorham) and John Constantine (Matt Ryan) having reservations about this plan, Superman was determined to go ahead and unfortunately for everyone involved, Darkseid was more than prepared for this particular attack.

The DC animated movies have not exactly been shy about the gore and violence and it feels like because this would be the last film in this particular animated universe, the writers decided to really up the violence and gore big time. Several characters are brutally slaughtered by Darkseid and his race of Paradooms while others such as Batman (Jason O'Mara), Flash, Cyborg (Shemar Moore) and Wonder Woman (Rosario Dawson) are given fates almost worse than death as Darkseid finds a way of keeping them alive but useful to him.

As for the survivors - time moved forward to a year and we had Constantine mourning Zatanna's death (Camilla Luddington) with an equally mopey Etrigan (Ray Chase) while a depowered Superman along with Raven (Taissa Farmiga) manage to get the two on side along with Damien Wayne (Stuart Allen) and the Suicide Squad as led by Harley Quinn (Hynden Walsh) in order to stop Darkseid from ruling the entire universe.

With the build of this animated movie universe for the last seven years (and something which the DCEU have done in a more scattered way), it's glorious to see all of these characters working together in order to save the day. Darkseid was the logical choice for a big universal threat and considering how previous movies used the character, his dominion gets played out rather well.

Especially when the second fight gets taken to Apokolips and we see the devastating effect that Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg and Flash have all suffered. Having both Constantine and Raven band together along with the release of Trigon (John DiMaggio) really did add to the scale of the battle as it really did take everyone (including the likes of Lois Lane and Lex Luthor working together) in order to take Darkseid out.

But then there's the end of the movie. Despite not wanting, the Flash will now create another Flashpoint event, following Constantine's advice. This obviously means that when the next animated universe starts up again, they can really start from scratch while at the same time referencing anything from this universe if needs be. It's an interesting but somewhat expected ending to probably the darkest animated DC film we've had since The Dark Knight Returns two parter.

- Both King Shark and Etrigan were dead in previous movies and yet they appeared here with no explanation at all. Continuity slip or were the writers not that bothered?
- It's nice that while this movie explored the Constantine/Zatanna romance, they also acknowledged the former's bisexuality, even if it was played for laughs with King Shark being an ex-lover of John's.
- If you get this on DVD or BluRay, you get either a short film for Adam Strange or a preview for the next animated movie, Man Of Tomorrow.
- Chronology: Not long since the events of Reign Of The Supermen.

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War as a culmination of a 15 movie universe certainly hits more than it misses. It's quite a dark movie, but it's mostly earned the darkness considering the build up of previous years and the ending does mean a new animated universe can start anew, mostly unburdened by previous events.

Rating: 8 out of 10